A cloud communication center network technology has been introduced to more efficiently utilize network resources. The cloud communication center network technology may greatly reduce operational expenditure and power consumption while increasing radio data capacity. Due to such advantages, the cloud communication center network technology has attracted much attention.
Typically, a radio unit and a digital unit are implemented as a single equipment and installed at a base station. The digital unit is connected to a switching system located at a central office, the radio unit transmits and receives a radio signal to/from a user equipment, and the digital unit processes the radio signal in accordance with an open system interconnection model (OSI) such as a radio Internet protocol.
Unlike the typical base station equipment, a cloud communication center network includes a digital unit and a radio unit separated and installed at different locations. For example, a radio unit may be installed at a base station in a respective target service area, and a plurality of digital units may be centralized in a digital unit center at a central office with a switching system. The radio unit may be coupled to a corresponding one of the digital units in the digital unit center through an optical interface. In order for smooth communication between the radio unit and the digital unit, the optical interface typically needs to support a data transmission rate of about 2.5 gigabits per second (Gbps) or more. Due to such requirements, the cloud communication center network may require expensive operating expenditure (OPEX) to maintain such an optical interface. Furthermore, a processing load for processing a radio signal in accordance with the OSI is concentrated at the digital unit center at the central office. Accordingly, the digital unit center requires a large amount of resources and high processing power as compared to the radio unit at the base station. Such a processing load may cause a delay in communication between the radio units and the digital unit center.
Therefore, there is a need for improving a cloud communication center network for reducing OPEX and distributing processing load by efficiently utilizing network resources.